Re: solid state magnifier...accidentally...cool!

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: "Ed Phillips by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <evp-at-pacbell-dot-net>

Tesla list wrote:
> 
> Original poster: "by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>"
<Hollmike-at-aol-dot-com>
> 
> Well Ed,
>    I certainly cannot argue against experience like that.  You are the first
> I've heard of that actually has caused such an explosion.  I guess some
> hydrogen can be trapped in the cells and the spark you caused was within
inches
> when disconnecting the battery.  I really wouldn't have thought that possible
> after a couple of weeks of sitting idle.
>   The 32V battery was charging so I can see that happening, I guess.  How
close
> was the ignition source to it when that happened.  My guess is that it was
> within a few inches too.
>    As for the 2V battery,  are you sure that wasn't caused by excessive heat
> build up within the cell itself?  Running continuous current like that will
> generate a lot of heat due to the internal resistance of the battery. Perhaps
> it was sealed well enough to build up pressure causing it to burst.  It might
> not have been due to ignition of the hydrogen(if any) but rather due to the
> heat.
> dunno now,  but I have a car battery sitting here and am going to short it
> through a power resistor and shine a flashlight into the cells to see if I
> observe any bubbles.
> Mike

	The first two explosions WERE triggered by pulling clip leads off the
battery.  Third was NOT, and no overheating at all; battery ran cool
under 2.5 amp filament load.  That was a long time ago, but I remember
that at the time I couldn't figure out what had caused it.

Ed